PARIS

lie in the fact that he had equalitarian ideas, since others
in .his day likewise had them and expressed them with
greater lucidity. What constitutes his significance is
that he was skilful enough to obtain power, and having
done so, sincere enough to make an energetic attempt
to translate his ideas into practice.

VII

The Suffrage Bill introduced in the Assembly
divided the people of France into "active" and "pass-
ive" citizens. "Active" citizens were those paying a
specified amount of taxes, and they alone were to be
permitted to vote and be eligible to public office. Jews
and actors were barred from all participation in govern-
ment. The bill disfranchised about three million of the
seven and a quarter million male French citizens of
voting age. Robespierre exclaimed bitterly: "What a
way to correct injustice, to add political ostracism to
the lack of the advantages of fortune, and heap all
power as well as wealth on the heads of a favoured
few!" He demanded unrestricted, direct manhood
suffrage, and political rights for both actors and Jews.
The Abbe Maury took the lists against him and criti-
cized the Jews for their ways of making a living, and
the actors for their morals. Robespierre replied that
the way the Jews were often compelled to make their
living was the shame of their oppressors, and demanded
to know if the morals of the clergy were above reproach.

His defence of the actors is interesting, because he
has sometimes been accused of Pharisaism. He often
spoke of virtue in his speeches, but took pains to ex-
plain that he meant civic virtue. "The soul of the Re-
public is virtue—that is to say, love of country, the
magnanimous devotion which enables us to merge all

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